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Journal of Bacteriology, September 2004, p . 5692-5698, Vol .
186, No . 17
The Bvg
Virulence Control System Regulates Biofilm Formation in Bordetella
bronchiseptica
Yasuhiko Irie,1 Seema Mattoo,2 and Ming H . Yuk1*
Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6084,1 Department of Microbiology,
Immunology & Molecular Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of
California—Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095-17472
Received 4 April 2004/ Accepted 21 May 2004
Bordetella species utilize the BvgAS (Bordetella virulence gene)
two-component signal transduction system to sense the environment
and regulate gene expression among at least three phases: a
virulent Bvg+ phase, a nonvirulent Bvg– phase, and an
intermediate Bvgi phase . Genes expressed in the Bvg+
phase encode known virulence factors, including adhesins such as
filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) and fimbriae, as well as toxins such
as the bifunctional adenylate cyclase/hemolysin (ACY) . Previous
studies showed that in the Bvgi phase, FHA and fimbriae
continue to be expressed, but ACY expression is significantly
downregulated . In this report, we determine that Bordetella
bronchiseptica can form biofilms in vitro and that the generation
of biofilm is maximal in the Bvgi phase . We show that FHA
is required for maximal biofilm formation and that fimbriae may also
contribute to this phenotype . However, expression of ACY inhibits
biofilm formation, most likely via interactions with FHA . Therefore,
the coordinated regulation of adhesins and ACY expression leads
to maximal biofilm formation in the Bvgi phase in B .
bronchiseptica .
Bordetella pertussis, Bordetella parapertussis, and Bordetella
bronchiseptica are closely related gram-negative coccobacilli
that colonize the upper respiratory tract of mammals . B . pertussis
and most B . parapertussis strains are obligate human pathogens
that usually cause acute respiratory diseases . B . bronchiseptica
has a much broader host range and is considered to be representative
of the evolutionary progenitor of all Bordetella spp . (10,
27) . It naturally infects many laboratory animals,
including mice, rats, and rabbits, and thus serves as an ideal model
for studying bacterial pathogenesis in a natural infection setting .
Although B . bronchiseptica has been associated with various
respiratory diseases, infection by this organism generally leads to
chronic and asymptomatic colonization in the host . This lifestyle
indicates that the bacteria employ specific mechanisms to counteract
host immune responses and also implies successful interactions with
other commensal bacteria commonly found in the upper respiratory
tract .
Most known virulence factors in Bordetella are regulated by
the BvgAS (Bordetella virulence gene) two-component signal transduction
system (21) . In response to environmental stimuli,
BvgAS undergoes a series of phosphorelay signal transduction events
that ultimately lead to differential transcriptions of target genes (6) .
Bacteria grown in rich media at 37°C exhibit the virulent Bvg+
phase, and this phase is characterized by the expression of virulence
factors, such as filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA), fimbriae, and
bifunctional adenylate cyclase/hemolysin (ACY) . Specific genes, such
as those required for motility (2), are repressed
in the Bvg+ phase but are expressed when the bacteria are grown
in Bvg–-phase conditions . The BvgAS system is not a simple
on/off switch, as a distinct intermediate Bvgi phase can be
achieved with growth of the bacteria in phase-modulating conditions
that are between that of the extreme Bvg+ and Bvg–
phases . The Bvgi phase is characterized by expression of
specific genes, e.g., bipA (30), that are
highly expressed only in the Bvgi phase but not in the Bvg+
or Bvg– phases . However, some genes are highly expressed
in both the Bvg+ and Bvgi phases (e.g., those
encoding FHA and fimbriae), whereas others are expressed in the Bvg+
but not the Bvgi phase (e.g., ACY) (8) .
Although the actual environmental signal(s) sensed by BvgAS during
infection has not yet been identified, certain laboratory growth
conditions can be used to modulate the Bordetella expression
profile to the Bvg– phase: growth at room temperature
(<25°C) or in the presence of millimolar concentrations of nicotinic
acid or MgSO4 (16) . A semimodulating concentration
of nicotinic acid concentration between 0.2 and 1.6 mM nicotinic
acid in the growth medium leads to the Bvgi-phase phenotype
(8) . Furthermore, there are specific mutants of the
BvgAS system that permanently lock the bacteria in each of the three
phases, and they are insensitive to environmental modulations (7,
8) .
FHA and fimbriae are two major adhesins that have been studied in
Bordetella spp . FHA displays multiple attachment activities (20)
and has been demonstrated to be important for adhesion of
Bordetella spp . to cell surfaces (30) and also for the
colonization of the trachea in animal models (9).
Bordetella fimbriae has also been demonstrated to function as
an adhesin in vitro and in vivo (22,
23) . While both FHA and fimbriae are generally
considered Bvg+-phase factors, they remain highly expressed
in the Bvgi phase as well (6) .
ACY is a bifunctional protein displaying both the adenylate
cyclase and hemolytic activities . It can be translocated into
infected host cells where it catalyzes the production of intracellular
cyclic AMP, resulting in the suppression of various host cell
functions (17) . It also plays an important role in the
interaction of the bacteria with neutrophils in vivo (11) .
However, ACY has also been shown to be associated with the cell
surface of Bordetella and can bind specifically to FHA in
vitro (36) . ACY is highly expressed in the Bvg+
phase but is significantly downregulated in the Bvgi phase
(8) .
Biofilms are bacterial communities that adopt a surface-adapted,
adherent multicellular lifestyle that appears to be fundamentally
different from the free-living planktonic state (24,
33, 34) . Biofilm communities
may be the predominant lifestyle of most bacteria in nature and may
also be that of bacteria that have adapted to adherent lifestyles on
various artificial structures . The role of biofilms in the
pathogenesis of various bacterial infections may be particularly
important, as many chronic infections, such as cystic fibrosis airway
infections by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, endocarditis, and
periodontitis, are strongly associated with biofilm formation (5,
28) . Regulation of biofilm formation in various
bacterial species has been shown to be dependent on the expression of
various cell surface structures and proteins (24) .
Furthermore, specific signaling pathways and cell-cell communication
mechanisms are also important to the establishment of many
well-studied biofilms and the dynamic equilibrium that is thought to
exist between planktonic bacterial cells and biofilms (13) .
In this report, we show that B . bronchiseptica can form biofilms
in vitro and that the BvgAS system regulates this phenotype . We
show that FHA and fimbriae contribute to the formation of biofilm,
but ACY inhibits the generation of biofilm . We propose that the
differential regulation of FHA, fimbriae, and ACY in various Bvg
phases, coupled with the interaction between FHA and ACY, give rise
to a strong biofilm phenotype in the Bvgi phase .
Bacterial strains and growth conditions. B . bronchiseptica
strains RB50 (wild type), RB53i (Bvgi phase-locked,
bvgS R570H, T733M), RB58 ( cyaA,
deleted of all but 61 codons at the 5' end and 65 codons at the 3'
end, resulting in >97.5% of the gene deleted), RBX9 ( fhaB,
deleted of all but four codons at the 5' end and five codons at the
3' end), and RB63 ( fimBCD,
deleted from codon 72 of fimB to codon 327 of fimD of the
fimBCD locus) were previously reported and well characterized (7-9,
11, 22) . All of these mutants were
in-frame deletions . A double in-frame deletion mutant in both fhaB
and cyaA was constructed by an allelic exchange strategy as
described previously (1), using the same vectors
that were used for construction of RBX9 and RB58 . All strains were
cultured in Stainer-Scholte (SS) liquid medium (29)
or on BG agar (Becton Dickinson) supplemented with defibrinated sheep
blood at 37°C . For Bvg phase modulation, bacteria were grown in SS
media with nicotinic acid (Sigma) added to appropriate final
concentrations .
Microscopy. Glass coverslips with attached biofilm from
overnight cultures were stained with Syto Red 17 (a nucleic acid
stain; Molecular Probes) for 30 min, which labels both live and dead
cells . The coverslips were washed and then mounted onto microscope
slides with antifade reagent (SlowFade Light Antifade kit; Molecular
Probes) . A Nikon MICROPHOT FXA epifluorescence microscope was
used to observe the specimens . A deconvolution micrograph was taken
with a Leica DM R epifluorescence microscope with deconvolution
software (Improvision Volocity) .
Quantitative assay of biofilm. Biofilms were grown in
non-tissue-culture-coated 96-well round-bottom polystyrene plates
(Corning) essentially as described previously (26) .
Briefly, overnight cultures were inoculated to 1:20 dilutions (for
single-strain biofilms) or 1:40 dilutions per strain (for dual-strain
biofilms) and were added to 100 µl of SS/well supplemented with
appropriate concentrations of nicotinic acid . After 24 h of
incubation at 37°C, each well was washed with water and was stained
with 150 µl of crystal violet solution (Becton Dickinson) . The dye
was then removed by thorough washing with water . For quantification
of attached cells, crystal violet was solubilized in 200 µl of 33%
acetic acid and the absorbance was measured at 595 nm . All strains
were grown in triplicate for individual experiments, and the values
were averaged with standard deviation of errors shown .
B . bronchiseptica generates a maximal biofilm phenotype in the
Bvgi phase in vitro. We had initially observed that
wild-type B . bronchiseptica grown in Bvgi-phase
conditions (e.g., in 0.8 mM nicotinic acid) or a Bvgi-phase-locked
strain (RB53i, bvgS R570H, T733M point mutant; remains in Bvgi
phase regardless of growth conditions) primarily formed thick
aggregates and grew adherent to the polystyrene test tubes (Fig.
1) instead of the predominant suspension liquid
cultures of bacteria grown in Bvg+ or Bvg– phases . The
adherent aggregates were particularly pronounced at the liquid-air
interface region of the cultures grown in tilted roller drums .
We examined this phenotype by microscopy to determine the presence of
microcolony formation (a hallmark of biofilm formation) under Bvgi
conditions (Fig . 2) . Wild-type bacteria grown in Bvg+
phase on glass coverslips formed a thin layer with small aggregates
within the layer (Fig . 2A) . Wild-type bacteria grown in
Bvgi phase, however, formed more distinct and larger microcolonies
(Fig . 2B) . The three-dimensional architecture of a
microcolony shown in Fig . 2B can be seen in Fig.
2D, which is a deconvoluted image of a microcolony
at higher magnification . Bacteria grown in Bvg– phase did
not attach significantly to the coverslip, and the attached bacteria
did not show formation of microcolonies (Fig . 2C) .
Therefore, B . bronchiseptica appears to form a relatively weak
biofilm at Bvg+ phase but a strong biofilm phenotype can
be observed in the Bvgi phase .
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FIG . 1 . Biofilm formation by B . bronchiseptica grown in the Bvgi
phase . Overnight liquid cultures of B . bronchiseptica were grown
in the Bvgi phase (0.8 mM nicotinic acid, left) or Bvg–
phase (4 mM nicotinic acid, right) in polystyrene culture tubes in
continuous rotation on roller drums . In the Bvgi phase, a
majority of the bacteria were adherent to the test tube wall, in
contrast to bacteria that was grown in Bvg– phase (or Bvg+
phase; data not shown) in which most bacterial cells remained in the
liquid media.
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FIG . 2 . Formation of microcolonies by B . bronchiseptica on glass
coverslips . Wild-type B . bronchiseptica organisms were grown on
glass coverslips and then were stained with Syto Red 17 and observed
under a fluorescent microscope (20x
objective and 10x eyepiece) . (A)
Culture medium with no nicotinic acid (Bvg+ phase) . (B)
Culture medium supplemented with 0.8 mM nicotinic acid (Bvgi
phase) . (C) Culture medium supplemented with 4 mM nicotinic acid (Bvg–
phase) . Bacteria grown in Bvg+ phase (A) appear to form small
aggregates, whereas microcolonies formed by bacteria grown in Bvgi
phase are large and distinct (B) . Bacteria in Bvg– phase (C)
displayed little adherence to the coverslip with no aggregative
properties . (D) Deconvolution micrograph of a microcolony depicted in
panel B displaying the cellular architecture of the microcolony . Bar, 7
µm.
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We quantitatively assayed the biofilm formation in polystyrene
96-well plates at various concentrations of nicotinic acid to
determine the variation of this phenotype at different Bvg phases .
Figure 3 shows that with increasing nicotinic acid
concentrations, biofilm formation by wild-type B . bronchiseptica
reached a maximum at 0.8 mM nicotinic acid and decreased with further
increases of nicotinic acid concentration . A Bvgi-phase-locked
mutant showed large amounts of biofilm formation regardless of
nicotinic acid concentration in the growth medium . These observations
confirm that B . bronchiseptica forms a strong biofilm phenotype
primarily in the Bvgi phase . The absorbance values of crystal
violet stains (used for quantitation of biofilm formation) was
not a simple measure of bacterial growth, as they did not correlate
with the total growth of the bacteria in these wells (i.e., bacterial
growth was not maximal at 0.8 mM nicotinic acid; data not shown) .
While Fig . 3 is a representative result of several
experiments, the absolute maximum absorbance values varied between
0.5 and 0.8 in experiments performed on different days, and the
maximum biofilm phenotype was always observed in the range of
nicotinic acid concentrations between 0.2 and 0.8 mM .
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FIG . 3 . Quantitative assay of biofilm formation by wild-type (RB50) and
Bvgi-phased-locked (RB53i) B . bronchiseptica at
different nicotinic acid concentrations . Bacteria were grown in 96-well
polystyrene plates, and biofilm formation was quantified by absorbance
of solubilized crystal violet stains, as described in Materials and
Methods . Biofilm formation in the wild-type bacteria peaked in the Bvgi
phase (0.2 to 0.8 mM nicotinic acid) . The Bvgi-phase-locked
mutant formed high levels of biofilm at all nicotinic acid
concentrations . Bvg+-phase growth condition is 0 to 0.1 mM
nicotinic acid, 0.2 to 1.6 mM is Bvgi phase, and 4.0 mM (and
above) is Bvg– phase . OD595, optical density at
595 nm.
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FHA is required for maximum biofilm formation in B . bronchiseptica.
Various adhesins have been shown to be important for the formation of
biofilm in other bacterial species (24) . We examined the
possible role of two Bvg-regulated adhesins expressed by Bordetella
spp., FHA and fimbriae, in biofilm formation (Fig . 4) .
In a comparison of biofilm formation by wild-type B .
bronchiseptica and a mutant with an in-frame deletion in the
structural gene encoding FHA ( fhaB),
the mutant formed significantly less biofilm in the Bvgi
phase (at 0.8 mM nicotinic acid) . However, there was no significant
decrease of biofilm formation in the Bvg+ phase compared to that of
the wild-type bacteria . On the other hand, a mutant that does not
express fimbriae ( fimBCD)
was highly attenuated in biofilm formation in the Bvg+
phase but did not show significant decreases in biofilm formation in
the Bvgi phase . These results suggest that FHA plays a primary role
in the formation of the strong biofilm phenotype in the Bvgi
phase . Expression of fimbriae appears to be required for the weaker
biofilm phenotype that is observed in the Bvg+ phase .
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FIG . 4 . Quantitative assay of biofilm formation in wild-type B .
bronchiseptica (RB50),
fhaB
mutant, and
fimBCD
mutant in the Bvg+ phase (0 mM nicotinic acid) and Bvgi
phase (0.8 mM nicotinic acid) . Bacteria were grown in 96-well
polystyrene plates, and biofilm formation was quantified by absorbance
of solubilized crystal violet stains, as described in Materials and
Methods . The amount of biofilm formed by the
fhaB
mutant in the Bvg+ phase was similar to that of the wild-type
but was significantly decreased in the Bvgi phase . The
fimBCD
mutant appears to form almost no biofilm in the Bvg+ phase,
but the amount of biofilm formed by this mutant in the Bvgi
phase was comparable to that of the wild-type bacteria . OD595,
optical density at 595 nm.
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ACY inhibits biofilm formation in B . bronchiseptica. It
was previously observed that a mutant B . bronchiseptica strain
with an in-frame deletion of the cyaA gene (which codes for
ACY) demonstrated a liquid culture phenotype of aggregation and
adherence similar to that of a Bvgi-phase-locked mutant,
even when the bacteria were grown in Bvg+ conditions . This indicates
that ACY mutants may demonstrate a strong biofilm phenotype
even in the Bvg+ phase, in contrast to wild-type bacteria, which
have a maximal biofilm phenotype in the Bvgi phase . Figure
5 shows that the ACY deletion mutant formed a
strong biofilm phenotype in both the Bvg+ and Bvgi
phase but not in the Bvg– phase . This suggests that ACY
suppresses biofilm formation in B . bronchiseptica . A previous
report has demonstrated a direct protein-protein interaction of ACY
with FHA (36) . Because FHA appears to be a major
contributor to biofilm formation in B . bronchiseptica, we
propose that ACY may inhibit biofilm formation via its interaction
with FHA . This result is also consistent with previous observations
that FHA is highly expressed in both Bvg+ and Bvgi phases
and that ACY is highly expressed in the Bvg+ but not in
the Bvgi phase (8) . We examined the biofilm
formation of a double mutant strain with in-frame deletions in both
cyaA and fhaB genes (Fig . 6) . The
amounts of biofilm formed by this double mutant in both Bvg+
and Bvgi phases were significantly lower than that of the
single ACY mutant but were still higher than that of the single FHA
mutant (Fig . 6) . Overall, this observation is consistent
with the hypothesis that the inhibition of biofilm formation by
ACY is at least partially mediated via its interaction with FHA .
However, because the double mutant forms more biofilm than the single
FHA mutant, ACY may inhibit biofilm formation via other mechanisms
besides its possible interaction with FHA .
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FIG . 5 . Quantitative assay of biofilm formation by wild-type B .
bronchiseptica (RB50) and
cyaA
mutant at different nicotinic acid concentrations . Bacteria were grown
in 96-well polystyrene plates, and biofilm formation was quantified by
absorbance of solubilized crystal violet stains, as described in
Materials and Methods . The
cyaA
mutant formed high levels of biofilm in both Bvg+ and Bvgi
phases compared to that of wild-type bacteria, which formed high levels
of biofilm only in the Bvgi phase . OD595, optical
density at 595 nm.
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FIG . 6 . Comparative quantitative assay of biofilm formation by the
cyaA
mutant,
fhaB
mutant, and
fhaB cyaA
double mutant in the Bvg+ phase (0 mM nicotinic acid) and Bvgi
phase (0.8 mM nicotinic acid) . Bacteria were grown in 96-well
polystyrene plates, and biofilm formation was quantified by absorbance
of solubilized crystal violet stains, as described in Materials and
Methods . The double mutant formed higher levels of biofilm than the
fhaB
mutant but formed lower levels than the
cyaA
mutant . OD595, optical density at 595 nm.
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ACY is secreted and also expressed on the cell surface by Bordetella
spp . (36) . We therefore tested if wild-type bacteria
could complement in trans the inhibitory effect of ACY on
biofilm formation by coculturing wild-type bacteria and ACY mutants .
Wild-type B . bronchiseptica was cocultured with approximately
equal numbers of the ACY mutant, and the overall level of biofilm
formation was quantitatively assayed (Fig . 7) . The
coculture experiments showed that wild-type bacteria (which produce
and secrete ACY mainly in the Bvg+ phase) were able to
significantly reduce the level of total biofilm formation when
cocultured with the ACY mutant in the Bvg+ phase .
Moreover, this inhibition was not observed in cocultures in the Bvgi
phase, when ACY expression by the wild-type bacteria is significantly
decreased . In both conditions, both strains grow at similar rates in
the cocultures (data not shown) . This result further supports the
idea that the strong biofilm phenotype observed in the ACY mutant is
due to the absence of the inhibitory effect of ACY on biofilm
formation .
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FIG . 7 . Quantitative assay of biofilm formation in cocultures containing
both wild-type B . bronchiseptica (RB50) and the
cyaA
mutant in the Bvg+ phase (0 mM nicotinic acid) and Bvgi
phase (0.4 mM nicotinic acid) . Bacteria were grown in 96-well
polystyrene plates, and biofilm formation was quantified by absorbance
of solubilized crystal violet stains, as described in Materials and
Methods . Coculture of RB50 with the
cyaA
mutant results in a low level of biofilm (comparable to that of RB50
alone) in the Bvg+ phase, but no significant reduction of
biofilm formation in the coculture was observed in the Bvgi
phase . OD595, optical density at 595 nm.
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There is consensus that most bacterial species that thrive on solid
surface environments grow in biofilms, and the number of species that
have been characterized to form biofilms in vitro continues to
increase . In this report, we show that B . bronchiseptica can
form biofilms in vitro . We discovered that the biofilm phenotype is
regulated by the BvgAS two-component signal transduction system . The
BvgAS system regulates a majority of known virulence factors in
Bordetella spp., and our results suggest that biofilm formation
may play an important role during colonization and pathogenesis
within the animal host . We determine that B . bronchiseptica
forms the strongest biofilm phenotype in vitro in the Bvgi
phase . This is demonstrated by the formation of a strong biofilm
phenotype by wild-type bacteria primarily in Bvgi-phase
growth conditions and also by the consistently high biofilm levels
formed by a Bvgi-phase-locked mutant regardless of growth
conditions . We show that the molecular mechanism for the
BvgAS-dependent biofilm formation at least involves FHA, fimbriae,
and ACY (all of which are regulated by BvgAS) . FHA and fimbriae
positively contribute to biofilm formation, while ACY inhibits
biofilm formation, most likely by interacting with FHA .
Various adhesin molecules in other bacteria, pathogenic and
nonpathogenic, have been reported to be important for biofilm
formation (24) . In Bordetella spp., FHA and fimbriae
have previously been shown to be important for adhesion to host cells
and, as a consequence, are known to be virulence factors important in
their roles for host colonization and pathogenesis (9,
22, 30-32) .
It is therefore not surprising that both FHA and fimbriae also
mediate biofilm formation, probably by promoting attachment to
surfaces .
The finding that ACY mutants formed strong biofilms in the Bvg+
phase as well as the Bvgi phase led us to propose that ACY inhibits
biofilm formation when it is expressed in the Bvg+ phase in
wild-type Bordetella spp . Zaretzky et al . reported that ACY
and FHA interact with each other by direct protein-protein binding
on the outer membrane surface of B . pertussis (36) .
We suggest that this interaction also occurs in B . bronchiseptica
and is at least partly responsible for the inhibition of biofilm
formation by ACY . Indeed, in the double mutant strain that does not
express both FHA and ACY, the amount of biofilm formed in both Bvg+
and Bvgi phases is significantly less than that observed in
the single ACY mutant . This suggests that at least part of the
mechanism of inhibition of biofilm formation by ACY involves its
interaction with FHA . However, the double mutant still forms more
biofilm than the single FHA mutant, suggesting that ACY may interact
with other yet unidentified factors to suppress biofilm formation .
The expression of ACY is limited to Bvg+ phase, and therefore the
strong Bvgi-phase biofilm trait observed in wild-type
B . bronchiseptica is most likely due to the absence of
significant ACY expression in Bvgi phase . This is also supported
by the observation that cocultures of both wild-type bacteria
and ACY mutants led to a significant reduction in overall biofilm
formation compared to that of ACY mutants alone . The ability of the
wild-type bacteria to trans complement the biofilm inhibition
phenotype suggests that either ACY secreted into the medium can
interact with FHA in trans or ACY that is present on the cell
surface of wild-type cells can interact with mutant cells in close
proximity to limit overall biofilm formation . The reduction in
biofilm formation in the cocultures is limited to cultures grown in
the Bvg+ phase but not in the Bvgi phase, and this
is consistent with the reduced expression of ACY in the Bvgi
phase by wild-type bacteria .
The physiological relevance of Bvg-dependent biofilm formation has
potential implications in understanding the lifestyle of B .
bronchiseptica as a chronically colonizing pathogen . In the Bvg–
phase, B . bronchiseptica does not appear to form biofilms in
vitro . As the Bvg– phase is proposed to be important for
survival outside of the host, our results suggest that biofilm
formation may not be critical for this phase of the B .
bronchiseptica life cycle . Both the Bvg+ and Bvgi
phases are likely to be important for successful interactions of
B . bronchiseptica with the host . The upper nasopharynx,
particularly the nasal mucosa, is one of the primary colonization
sites for B . bronchiseptica . The temperature in this area in
mammals is measured to be between 30 and 34°C (19) .
Temperature is an environmental signal that can mediate Bvg
regulation, and this range of temperature would modulate the bacteria
into the Bvgi phase . Therefore, B . bronchiseptica
organisms that colonize this region of the host may be predominantly
in the Bvgi phase and may form biofilms . We cannot,
however, exclude the possibilities that the bacteria are sensing
other signals from the nasal cavity, from the host directly, or from
other bacterial species residing in the area . Bacteria can detach
from mature biofilms, and such planktonic cells are presumed to
colonize other sites and form new biofilms (33) .
It is possible that detached cells from B . bronchiseptica
biofilms in the nasopharynx of infected hosts might also contribute
to the process of transmission to new hosts . Although we do not yet
have direct evidence that B . bronchiseptica actually forms
biofilms in vivo during infections, the fact that this phenotype is
Bvg-regulated strongly indicates that it is involved in bacteria-host
interactions .
Biofilms appear to be more resistant to antibiotics and host
immunity than are planktonic cells (12, 18).
B . bronchiseptica infections are characterized by long-term
chronic colonization of the upper respiratory tract, and biofilm
formation may be a primary mechanism for their survival in the host
and in successful interactions with other bacteria . Tuomanen et al .
reported that other bacteria can utilize B . pertussis FHA to
attach to host cells (31), and B . pertussis
infection is often associated with superinfections of other
respiratory pathogens . The possible interactions between various
respiratory pathogens, such as those within multispecies biofilms,
may be critical for the pathogenesis of bacterial respiratory
infections . We are presently investigating the possible influence of
other common respiratory commensal bacteria on biofilm formation by
B . bronchiseptica (and vice versa) in coinfection models in
vitro .
The developmental biology of biofilm formation can be characterized
into three stages: the initial attachment, development of microcolony
formation, and detachment (24) . The initial attachment
is often mediated by various adhesins, such as fimbriae in
Salmonella enteritidis (4) and type IV pili in
P . aeruginosa (25) . Cell proliferation and
type IV pili-driven twitching motility appear to be important for
further microcolony formation (14, 15) .
It is not clear yet at which stages fimbriae and FHA participate
in B . bronchiseptica biofilm formation . In addition, the detachment
of bacterial cells from biofilm microcolonies is not well understood,
but the possible roles of polysaccharide lyase (3) and
cell death and survival within microcolonies (35)
have been proposed . We are presently conducting experiments to
understand and characterize the developmental aspects of B .
bronchiseptica biofilm formation and the molecular mechanisms of
these processes .
We thank Peggy Cotter and the Cotter laboratory for helpful
discussions and for providing us with bacterial strains . We also
thank Emmanuelle Binet and Marjan van der Woude for technical and
scientific assistance and Andy Piefer for help with deconvolution
microscopy .
This work was supported in part by NIH grant AI04936 to M.H.Y .
* Corresponding author . Mailing address: Department of
Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 201C Johnson
Pavilion, 3610 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6084 . Phone: (215)
573-6690 . Fax: (215) 573-4184 . E-mail:
mingy@mail.med.upenn.edu .
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